August 31, 2007 - Gate B

This is a special article for out-of-town visitors coming to Santa Barbara for the fundraiser next week.

Those of you who are planning to attend Oprah's Obama Bash might have heard that there won't be valet parking in front of Oprah's vacation home in Montecito. Instead, you will need to go eight miles away to Gate B of the Earl Warren Showgrounds and catch a shuttle bus to the big event. One might conclude from it's second letter status that Gate B -- like Plan B -- is some sort of secret side entrance to The Showgrounds. But that simply is not true. Gate B is actually the main entrance. You get to it from Calle Real, the frontage road for THE 101 freeway.

Note: Here in Santa Barbara as in the rest of Southern California, we refer to freeways with the definite participle "the" - it's how we talk and if you are visiting our community for the first time and want to fit in, you should try it too.

Of course, anyone attending a political bash of the Obama magnitude should know quite well that the namesake for the Earl Warren Showgrounds is Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. He served as the country's top jurist for most of the 1960's (succeeded in a supreme juxtaposition of names by Warren Earl Burger). His court ruled on such monumental issues as racial segregation and civil rights. Chief Justice Warren was a strong supporter of the rights of blacks and other minorities. It seems fitting that his name is represented in a celebration of two such prominent African American leaders.

Earl Warren was also the governor of California; and he ran for Vice President, too. He was with Dewey, the name on the headline in the famous picture of Harry Truman holding up the Chicago Daily Tribune saying, "Dewey Defeats Truman!"

Of course, no governor of California has ever been quite as famous as the Gubernator we have today. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan became famous for a while. In case you forgot, President Reagan had a ranch in Santa Barbara that he visited often during his eight years in office. He was always posing for pictures on his horse.

While partygoers are waiting for their bus at Gate B, they won't help but notice that there's a large statue in the parking lot of a man on a horse. It's not President Reagan. And, even though the base of the statue says "Earl Warren" in big letters, it's not him either. Francis "Duke" Sedgwick, an artist and former resident of Santa Barbara, created the statue. The word on the street is that the man on the horse is the artist himself - or at least the rider's face is his likeness. Sedgwick, by the way, is the father of Edie Sedgwick, who was Andy Warhol's "It Girl" in the 1960's. Actress Kyra Sedgwick is also related to the face of the man on the horse in some roundabout way.

As the story goes, Sedgwick sold his horse statue to the State, who put it at The Showgrounds because there was room, and they didn't know what else to do with it. The statue is specifically mentioned in "Edie", George Plimpton's famous book about the tragic life of Edie Sedgwick.

"She talked about that stupid horse sculpture that the state bought from her father and then gave to the Earl Warren Showgrounds. She was putting him down but at the same time letting people know that she was somebody."

Today the Earl Warren Showgrounds hosts a fair, horse shows, flower shows, computer shows, truck pulls, rodeos, community events, and the like. It is also the location of an off-track betting facility. There, you can play a favorite, or you can put your money on long a shot. Given recent polls, one might consider putting down $2,300 for the Oprah Obama Bash is a bit like playing a long shot ... of course without the party and the bus ride.

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